n. (abbr. EGAD)a group created by the International Council on Archives (ICA) to develop a conceptual model for archival descriptionCallahan and Hilton 2017Ex officio members of the Technical Subcommittee on DACS shall include the following if they are not regular members of the subcommittee: Co-chairs of the Standards Committee; Chair of the Description Section; Society of American Archivists’ representative to Committee on Cataloging: Description and Access (CC:DA); Society of American Archivists’ representative to the MARC Advisory Committee; Society of American Archivists’ representative to International Council on Archives Experts Group on Archival Description (ICA-EGAD) [formerly International Council on Archives Committee on Best Practices and Standards].Gueguen et al. 2013, 568In 2012, the International Council on Archives (ICA) formed the Experts Group on Archival Description (EGAD) as the partial successor to the Committee on Best Practices and Standards (CBPS). As with its predecessor, ICA charged EGAD with developing standards for the description of records based on archival principles. For the 2012–2016 term, the EGAD is specifically charged with developing a comprehensive descriptive standard that reconciles, integrates, and builds on the four existing standards: General International Standard Archival Description (ISAD(G)); International Standard Archival Authority Records—Corporate Bodies, Persons, and Families (ISAAR(CPF)); International Standard Description of Functions (ISDF); and International Standard Description of Institutions with Archival Holdings (ISDIAH). The ICA further mandates that the EGAD develop the standard using “conceptual modeling” methods.Santamaria, Tuomala, and Hintz 2016, 59As reported last year, EGAD will produce three primary products: 1) A statement on principles and a glossary of terms; 2) a conceptual model for archival description as such (expressed in textual description and diagrams); and 3) a formal ontology expressed in OWL (W3C Web Ontology Language).The ontology will address the broader cultural heritage context within which archival description exists, to facilitate both a good understanding of the fundamentals concepts, and interrelating archival description with allied cultural heritage description.
Notes
This group, created by ICA in 2012, is tasked with developing a conceptual model that reflects an international professional consensus and positions the archival community to take advantage of opportunities presented by current and emerging communication technologies.
